THERE is no part of the British Empire in which the Homoeopathic Art has taken deeper root than in India, and we publish elsewhere a letter from our correspondent, Dr. Sarat Chandra Ghose, telling of the movement made by our Indian colleagues to co-ordinate and regularise the various Homoeopathic activities of the great Province of Bengal. On Sunday, May 17th, there was held at Calcutta the “All-Bengal Homoeopathic Conference,” at 147 Baranasi Ghosh Street, Calcutta, under the presidency of the veteran Dr. Sarat Chandra Ghose. Dr. W. Younan was elected Honorary President, the full list of officials of the Conference being the following:
Honorary President:
DR. W. YOUNAN, M.B., C.M. (Edin.).
President:
DR. SARAT CHANDRA GHOSE, M.D. (U.S.A.).
Honorary Vice-President:
Dr. J.N. Mazumder, F.I.H.L.
Vice-Presidents:.
Dr. Bijoy Chandra Singha.
Dr. T. Palit.
Dr. A. M. Mullik, M.B. (Cal).
Dr. J. N. Banerjee, L.M.S. (Cal).
Dr. S. A. Khan, M.D. (U.S.A).
Dr. R. Sen Gupta, M.D. (U.S.A).
Dr. H. P. Maity, M.A. (Cal.), M.D. (U.S.A).
Dr. S. N. Roy, M.A., M.B. (Hom).
Dr. Jitendra Nath Chowdhury, M.D.H.
Dr. J. M. Mitra, B.A. (Cal.), M.D. (U.S.A).
Dr. G. Dirghangi.
Dr. K. K. Roy, M.D. (U.S.A).
Dr. S. Pathak, B.Sc. (Cal.), M.D. (U.S.A).
Dr. S. Chakravarty, M.A.
Dr. S. Hossain, M.D., M.H.
Dr. D. C. Das Gupta, M.B. (Cal).
General Secretary:
Dr. S. C. Dey, M.D. (U.S.A). Chairman Organisation of Homoeopathy and its Improvement.
Dr. A. M. Mullik, M.B. (Cal.), Visagratna. Chairman Philosophy Section.
Dr. H. P. Maity, M.A., M.B., Homoeopath. Chairman Materia Medica Section.
Dr. J. M. Mittra, B.A., M.D. (U.S.A.). Chairman Medicine Section.
Dr. S. Pathak, B.Sc., M.D. (U.S.A.). Chairman Pharmacology Section.
Dr. S. C. Ghose, M.D. (U.S.A.). Chairman Pediatrics Section.
Dr. R. Sen Gupta, M.D. (U.S.A.). Chairman History of Homoeopathy Section.
Dr. J. M. Mitra, B.A., M.D. (U.S.A.). In charge of Exhibition Section.
Dr. N. Bhowmic. Secretary Exhibition Section.
Dr. S. N. Roy, M.A. (Cal.), M.B., Homoeopath. Chairman Reception Committee.
Dr. Jitendra Nath Chowdhury, M.D., Homoeopath. Vice Chairman Reception Committee.
Dr. K. M. Banerjee. Secretary, Reception Committee.
The objects of the conference were set out clearly in the covering circular, and are in every way admirable and practical:.
(a) The promotion of the Science and Art of Homoeopathy in India.
(b) The Union of the Homoeopathic profession of Bengal into one compact and harmonious organisation.
(c) The development and diffusion of the Homoeopathic Therapeutics.
(d) The promotion of friendly intercourse between all Homoeopaths.
(e) The elevation of the status and standard of Homoeopathic Medical Education in India.
(f) The enlightenment of public opinion in regard to the efficacy and superiority of Homoeopathic remedies.
Organisation and combination are the modern watchwords of progress in any sphere, and this latest move on the part of our Indian colleagues is in every way admirable. Isolated units can accomplish much in their own personal spheres of action, but if the units are organised into a united body the possibilities are multiplied indefinitely.
We regret that our space will not permit us to publish Dr. Ghoses address in full, but we will quote here his opening remarks, some passages of which we have taken the liberty of printing in italics.
THE ADDRESS:.
Maharaja Bahadur, Brother Practitioners, Ladies and Gentlemen,.
Allow me at the very outset to offer you my most sincere and cordial thanks for the very high honour you have thought fit to bestow upon me by asking me to preside over the deliberations of this All Bengal Homoeopathic Conference. I feel, in responding to the call made upon me by the promoters of this conference, that I am appropriating an honour which should have fallen upon some one of the distinguished colleagues whom I see around me.
For myself, I had never dreamed of occupying this chair. Many of my colleagues are fully aware of the fact that I have tried to avoid this honour. Moreover in recent years other public duties and responsibilities have been thrust upon me and which have so increased that they now swallow up practically all my available time and energy and good deal of my leisure.
I thank you sincerely from the bottom of my heart for your selection of me. I can assure you that the best of all that is inherent in me is at the service of this conference so long as by your good will, I occupy the presidential chair, for in serving this conference I know I am propagating the cause of Homoeopathy.
In the name and by the authority of this Homoeopathic Conference I greet you, brother practitioners and citizens, constituents of this assembly! This representative assembly, inspired by one mind, is the tangible manifestation of the solidarity of Homoeopathy in our country. Great is the power of assembling ourselves together; for in our confraternity the whole is as great as its parts only when the parts come together. The living sense of comradeship, the animating effect of assembling with one accord, the mighty stimulus derived from human assemblage these are added factors permeating the structure of our intellectual frame work and are poorly represented or represented not at all by a mere paper register of adherents. Here we strongly augment the springs of action by the contact of personalities.
Homoeopathy does not now lisp its first words. It has spread into every nook and corner of our country. It is a matter of extreme mortification on our part to say that there are many intelligent and educated men in India who do not know the principles of Hahnemanns Science of Therapeutics, but in spite of their palpable ignorance they always scoff at and ridicule Homoeopathy. Homoeopathy has been put to the touch-stone of experience and experiment and has ever come off with flying colours.
The subject that I have chosen for my presidential address is “Homoeopathy: Its underlying principles of cure and scientific basis,” and I have made this choice with the ostensible object of vindicating the claims of Homoeopathy as a rational system of medicine and of dispelling the darkness from the minds of those persons who are not conversant with its principles.
But I say in all humility that I am a poor Homoeopath no better than a pigmy follower of our immortal Master and as such the gentlemen present here can not expect any illuminating speech from me.
Vast and varied as the wealth of Homoeopathy is, I would not seek to display its splendour in all its naked sublimity before this assembly; it would be absurd making any such attempt in the present discourse. However, I shall just try to give an idea of the underlying principles of Homoeopathy and its scientific basis. Homoeopathy is a science of which we have every reason to be proud. Whether we consider it as a philosophy, as a science, or as a life-restoring, health-imparting art, we may well be satisfied to consecrate our lives to its expansion, propagation and advancement.
There is no branch of human endeavour more prolific than ours in the practical betterment of our race and civilisation and there is no department of our art, no section or degree of Homoeopathy, which does not exactly the sympathy and fostering care of this conference. If any body wishes to be conversant with my religion, my instantaneous reply is, I am a Homoeopath. My politics? I am a Homoeopath. My fatherland? Homoeopathy. With me, Homoeopathy is the dominating spirit. Homoeopathy is first, second and third and everything else that is worth having comes after that.
When I took my first timid peeps into the beauty and grandeur of Homoeopathy, I had an impression at the back of my mind that I should soon be able to detect and make use of all the good there was in the system and that I must study and work assiduously in exclusion. But that impression was pretty soon knocked out of me. I found in the system much more than I foresaw, and I found this in addition, that if I was to make anything at all out of it, I must dedicate my life to its cause and associate myself with others who had done the same.
We are all members of one fraternity and this conference has only one interest Homoeopathy. It is inspired by one enthusiasm the enthusiasm of Homoeopathy. Every sincere advocate whose principal object in life is to exemplify the Hahnemannian law, has the right to the countenance and support of this conference. The law is one and the glory of it, but we can not all practise it exactly alike however much we may desire to do so.
We can all aim at one ideal, and the higher we can pitch our aim the more likely we are to reach the climax of attainment; but we have each to find out the particular method which gives the best results to our individual limited powers. Only, it will be well if we do not take too humble a view of our powers and their limitations; and whatever we do, let us ever be eager to extend our borders. We must always be moving on; and if I can, in some measure, discharge the humble policemans duty, of moving you all on, I shall feel that my election has not bee fruitless.
ENTHUSIASM OF HOMOEOPATHY.
Motion is life Stagnation is dissolution. And no less important than motion is the direction in which the movement takes place. It matters not what our grade or shade of homoeopathic practice may be so long as we are ever moving onward, forward and upward further and further away from the region of allopathic name- fetters and negations, we are contributing to the evolution of our Science and the welfare of our race. And the force which alone can move us on is enthusiasm the enthusiasm of Homoeopathy.
